put a link on our web site and it comes with a very handsome set of steak knives as well. no, it doesn't. it doesn't. >> you don't give out guns? >> no, no, that will be fine. that is all for today. we'll be back next week. for now we want to wish you and your family a very merry christmas. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." good morning and welcome to "morning joe."

i hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. >> i want them to spend the entire morning -- >> are you having a wonderful holiday? >> of course. >> family time is so great, isn't it? >> my favorite time of year. i love it. >> i can't stay awake. >> jack is reading the must-read opinion pages. little kate is somewhere in the back. >> she is rolling prompter. >> i'm having her take my bar bells down to my office on the second floor. i got them up here because you know i exercise and joey and andrew are over there somewhere. having a great holiday season. >> all right. so this hour we're taking a look back at the stories that shaped the year 2012. and joining us on set are msnbc contributor mike barnicle. hello, mike. >> hello, mika. >> yeah, good thing you're awake. national affairs editor for new york magazine and msnbc political analyst john heilemann. >> yeah, hi. and from cnbc headquarters, co-host of cnbc's "squawk box"

andrew ross-sorkin. >> do i need to make a joke about school being out? >> we're kind of tired of that. >> you've grown up. you went from being a little kid to an old man. >> he's a grizzled old vet. >> the gray hair is coming in. >> there's no in between. and from washington nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" the lovely andrea mitchell. and "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart. thank you so much for being with us. why don't we just start really quickly with this story of the mere, mika, and that, of course, barack obama wins, the republicans lose, in a way that perhaps is more telling than just what one election result might suggest. >> well, i think it certainly does and it gives him a certain platform and credibility that perhaps he didn't have before. but watching as these fiscal

cliff negotiations have gone through the holidays, it certainly is perhaps a little bit more of a bully pulpit for the president and for his position on taxes. but i think the biggest story of the year came at the end of the year in the past week or so which is the massacre at sandy hook elementary school in newtown and i think the presidency now might be shaped by those events and those are the stories that both barnicle and andrea have chose n as the top story. would you agree this could be a signature for the second term? >> i to do. i do agree with that. i think the events of a few days ago in newtown, connecticut, will help shape a good portion of the president's second and final term in office. i think it gives us a huge impe it tus to changes in this country that had had taken too long to take hold. i think the presidency itself, i

think the man himself was shaped and altered by these events, both as a parent and as a president. >> andrea? >> let me just say that joe califano in the aftermath for some calls to action has written about what lbj said to him right after robert kennedy was killed. lbj called in joe and the other top aides in white house and said, we have to act within ten days before the nra gets organized. and they failed to do it. they tried and they failed. and lbj had a bill that had been bottled up in committee for months and months for, you know, licensing and registration and they signed something much, much less in october and he spoke out, president johnson did, in october of 1968, forcefully and angrily about the failure even after robert kennedy's death to do something to defeat the gun lobby. while i have the spirit of the season and a feeling that things have changed and saw joe's powerful -- joe, your powerful

statement in the aftermath, in the immediate aftermath of the killings, i have my doubts as to whether this president and this congress have the guts and the strength and the political courage to go forward. >> they have to move quickly, don't they, john heilemann? >> yeah, i think they do. you can't lose them. the sense of moral urgency that comes with proximity to this thing. and right now the nra is on its heels defenders of our insanely permissive gun laws in defensive crouch right now and it's the time you want to capitalize on that. it's probably the only time. you don't want to let those forces, any sense of complacency setback and you don't want to let the force that is are standing in the way of progress on this issue give them time to regroup and get them -- bolster their efforts. this is going to exist. it's not easy to get done. >> mika, you look at what

happened, how it happened. we talked about this happening in shopping mallses in oregon and movie theaters in colorado, college campuses in virginia. of course finally a first grade class in connecticut. in a state that certainly has tougher gun laws than, say, a lot of other red states. in a community that seems like it should have been so shielded from this and a season that is supposed to be about peace. >> exactly. >> i think it underlined in so many ways why none of us, are none of us are shielded from this kind of violence unless we force our leaders to do something. >> well, and, again, i think i worry about what andrea mitchell is saying about the concern about whether or not the president in congress has the guts to do something. i would say that it would be one of the most disappointing things i've ever witnessed in my entire lifetime. if we can't make fundamental

changes in our gun laws but, not only that, in how we handle mental illness in this country, school security in this country and, also, the pervasive and deadly culture of these violent video games which i don't care, i'll say it, feed into this. feed into almost every profile that we see and literally give these young shooters, these young, male shooters guide posts as to how to commit a mass murder, a massacre, and they literally sit for hours learning how to do it and enjoying it. and then you wonder why it actually happens sometimes. >> children are desensitized. andrea mentioned the statement i made right after these terrible, terrible killings. there were some people who said, oh, are you really going to blame video games? >> yes, i am. >> give me something else. >> i remember mike barnicle, and you have boys -- i'm sure you went through this as well. i remember probably when my kids

were 11 and 8. my two older boys were 11 and 8 and had video games and somehow it went from pond to frogger to techno bowl. you made the progression but they bring home this james bond video game and it's running around and seems like every other video game but then you get to some point where somebody raises a gun, aims it at another figure's head, pulls the trigger. i remember being so horrified. about ten years ago that i jumped up out of my seat and said what the hell was that? ran across, grabbed the video game out. threw it away. you know, a couple of christmases ago they bring home a war game where, you know what, we're sitting there watching them as they shoot 20, 30, 40 people in a two-three-minute time period. and it happens and you isolate those kids. they sit in the room and do this. >> hours. >> combine that with mental health problems, with a pervasive gun culture like the one that this boy had in his

house. tragedy follows. >> joe, even the 30-second commercials for some of the video games are horrific. but i would -- i understand where andrea is coming from. i certainly understand the cynicism. we've all lived through these events in the past where nothing has happened, but i think we have reason for hope with this terrible, terrible thing that happened in newtown, connecticut, and it is this. this is no did i mminishment of anything that happened in aurora or virginia tech or any place else in this country, but it this event into newtown, connecticut, in the past days, prior to christmas, is much easier to access on an emotional level for huge numbers of people in this country because of the ages of the victims, 6 and 7 years of age. all of us with children have memories of children at 6 and 7. you can access immediately the

deaths of these children at an emotional level. there's purpose in what the president said. and i think there's going to be a lingering purpose and an anger within the president about the fact nothing has been done. about all of these elements you've spoken about. >> in the video games, which are so violent, when we were kids, yeah, definitely us, maybe you, too, and you had a lonely socially dysfunctional chald that was maybe an outcast. chances are he'd watch too much television and maybe he'd see star ski and hutch too much. you know what they do it now? they sit in front of the computer and watch people die by their own hand in these games. it's absolutely ludicrous. >> scores. >> that this can happen and we don't make a direct link because that's what these young boys, lonely, troubled, sometimes medicated boys and, you know

what, i'll say it, they have all different versions of mental illness and personality disorders, these profiles all are the same and they're all doing it and it's connected. it's connected. >> it is connected and jonathan capehart, the problem is whenever you talk about this, from the second you talk about violence in hollywood movies or video games, you'll have people on the left saying, oh, we're just trying to show the nra from, whatever, and then when you go after the nra, you'll have people on the right going, oh, but you're not looking at mental health. everybody creates a false choice. if you talk about violent or a violent culture that desensitizes americans and somehow you're not taking a tough stand on guns, if you talk about guns, you're not taking a tough stand on mental health and everybody goes around in circles to try to muddy the issues and avoid getting anything done. >> right. and everyone is using the argument as diversions from dealing with the issues at hand. none of these things that you

are talking about happen in isolation. and i'm glad you're having this conversation because one thing begets the other. and so if people don't think that violent video games has something to do with this or mental illness has something to do with this or the growing social isolation of young boys but also young people has anything to do with this, them they're crazy. the other thing here is we talk a lot about what the president has done or hasn't done on gun issues, whether this will give the president that bully pulpit moment to actually do something on this and, yes, we should focus on the president. he is the president. he's the chief executive, but we also need to take a look at what's going on to 0 combat the nra, to push back against the nra, you know, i wrote a piece talking about how mayor bloomberg is doing his part and his super pac independence usa pac where he is really going out there pushing back against illegal guns, going up against

the nra in only the way mike bloomberg can, one, because he's a billionaire and billion a billionaire gives you the money to go up against the nra which a lot of people don't have but it also gives him sort of that independence to go tell the nra to stuff it. and so if you have -- if you have the president out there pushing, you have mayor bloomberg out there pushing, then i think it's incumbent upon all of us to go out there and give our members of congress the courage they need to tell the nra this time we're not listening to you. this time we're going to do something. >> john heilemann? >> well, look, i think that's all true. and, you know, the president has the loudest voice here and he can't -- he's only one voice but it's the largest voice and the truth is, as people have pointed out, he has not so far in his first term did not dedicate a lot of political capital. he's had in the wake of other shootings, he's called for

legislation but has not really done very much about this. i do think president obama heading into a second term recognizing that now what he's playing for is legacy. the things he accomplishes over the next four years are legacy matters and i think he cares about that enormously and because of that i think there is, and he said it now, in the speech he gave on the sunday night after the massacre, he said i will use all the power that is available to me in this office to keep this from happening again. people, i think he expects to be held to that, i think he should be held to that. it's hard to lay down a marker and walk away from it. people need to keep pressure on him and everyone else, republican and democrat alike. >> andrew ross-sorkin, one big difference today as compared to aurora or after what happened in oregon or these other shootings, he's had four shootings, mass shootings since he's been elected president, he's been re-elected and usually that's seen as a negative that he's a lame duck president.

here gives him so much more power and so much more latitude not only here but also as we've seen in budget negotiations. >> right. >> shape history. >> my worry, and i second everything around the table, but my worry is i think andrea is worried which is that, you know, you really have to get out of your shell and have some courage to take this on. are we talking about bringing back just the laws from 1994 or are we going further? are people really willing to go further and, frankly, i would argue that we need to find a way to go further. are we really going to address the mental health issues and, by the way, is that going to really be on the table or not? and perhaps most importantly, you mentioned video games. i agree with you. having said that, you can see the first amendment arguments are going to be there and the lobbying on all of these issues. >> sure. >> and so my great fear is maybe we do go back to the laws of 1994 but i'm not sure in this day and age when you add up all the other issues whether it

comes to video games, whether it comes to the mental health issues that we get there. i just would 0 plug two things. one is there's a technical solution that i keep hearing more and more about, which is that we should force gun makers to fingerprint, to have electronic fingerprints on the guns, to attach the guns to individuals if we're going to have them out there at all. i'm not talking about semiautomatics. i'm talking about just straight handguns. and the second issue is in this world that we live in, i was just at the airport. we spend billions of dollars with the tsa literally to avoid one shoe bomber. right? that's what we're trying to avoid that one person with mental health issues. as much as i want to focus on the mental health issues, the guns ultimate patly a ultimat a. >> we have allowed the federal government to be intrusive. every time we get on a plane. we have allowed our 9-year-old children to be stopped and

frisked. our grandmothers to be 0 stopped and frisked. all of these people that -- our loved ones every time we go it through a tsa screening. we're willing to do that because of the attacks of 9/11 but we're not willing to tell a small niche of gun enthusiasts that they can't carry around semiautomatic combat style weapons with these magazine clips that allow you to reel off 10, 15, 20, 30 bullets per second that spin and rip young children to shreds? re really? real really? i don't think so. coming up, our discussion of the top stories of the year continues. and later, the most memorable moments from mitt romney's run for the white house for better or for worse. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] with over 50 delicious choices

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welcome back to "morning joe." we want to continue a conversation on the big stories that shaped the past year and there were some others, even though the past recent events of the past week or so seem to overshadow everything. but why don't we start with john heilemann's choice of a certain statement made at a certain fund-raiser. >> well, just before i mention mitt romney's 47% comment, i want to go back to what joe said earlier. the big story of this election is president obama won and won not just in a race that everyone said was going to be razor thin, it would be super close, he ends up winning with 52% of the vote we now know one of only five presidents in history who has won more than 51% in two successful elections. >> and it's not even close when it comes to the swing states. >> correct. >> nine, ten, 11 swing states for a year and a half.

at the end of the day it was no close. >> and no one could predict it? >> one that portends a lot for the future of american politics with this coalition of the ascendant that elected him, college educated americans. this is what the future looks like and his victory showed it. on the other side, beyond his victory was, of course, mitt romney's loss and there's probably no single moment that signified everything that was problematic with romney's candidacy more than the 47% video. he had been painted by his own 0 words and by president obama's team as a heartless, out of touch democrat and it made it difficult to be successful in this election. >> around to everybody else, the article of the year, and i hate to say this because you are here and you know we all basically have contempt for you and say

nasty things about you and your dog when you leave the set. >> i'm aware. i'm aware. >> you had the political article of the year in may for new york magazine. you talked to obama's people and it was staggering. they said we know we can't win on our record. so we're going to have to destroy mitt romney and we're going to tear him apart -- >> and this is how we're going to do it. and they did exactly what they told you back in may they were going to do. i wonder did nobody from mitt romney's campaign get a s subscription this year? >> they said we're going to take him out on bain. take him out on his taxes. take him out on his governor as massachusetts but, more importantly, paint him as a figure of the past. someone who doesn't understand your problems, that he's someone from a bygone america who doesn't have anything to say to the voters who are going to make up our winning margin, but just to wrap that big thing back around, the 47%, romney did more -- all that have damage had been done by how obama team painted him. and then romney came out -- >> and then romney talked.

>> with his own words, revealed in september, seemingly and vividly confirming in his own words through his own mouth caught on videotape, all of the worst stereotypes and kas caricatures. >> jonathan capehart, i mean, 47% we focus on that, we forget this is a guy that gets -- the greatest hits for democratic ad makers. i like firing people. do you remember that one? ten others just like that. he won a big victory in florida and the next morning go on a cable news show and say something equally shocking. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> yeah. for me, the 47% video was so -- i mean, it was shocking in its brutal honesty but also how he was able to deride half the country. literally half the kcountry he

said, well, i don't have to worry about those folks, they're free loaders lack iing for a handout. they don't know how to learn personal responsibility. and think about these are the people he, one, hopes to lead and, two, you would think he would want their votes. and the next day he doubled down on that. and then a week later tried to pull it later. and so for, i think, for the american people to see someone who wanted to be president of the united states insult them, i think, was -- that was the thing that put the lid on romney not winning. >> probably not a good marketing strategy. something you see coca-cola doing, coke adds life but in your case would rather you die. >> oh, stop. >> maybe we're just not -- people aren't going to buy coke. >> andrew ross-sorkin wants in. >> the bigger issue this framed up and why it's so important is not just this past year but going into this next year is the reframed inequality story in

this country. we talk about makers and takers. to me the 47% in many ways is reflecting what the occupy wall street folks talked about when they talked about we are the 99% and hopefully i hope that issue that romney's comment, as short as it was, has rei go nated a conversation in this country about jobs, the kind of jobs we want, the kind of incomes that we think people should need. i think it's raised issues about unions. i think it's much more than just a political sentence. it's taken on sorts of other meanings i think will change the debate and has already begun as we go into the new year. >> what's interesting, andrea, the president won. no doubt about it. he won handily. if you look at one night, one big event that i think a lot of us thought might be the defining moment, it was the first debate in denver where the president of the united states decided to just kind of not show up. >> it was profoundly important at the time and i think

continues to be because it showed both the overconfidence and the lack of engagement and it was particular and personal to barack obama. but if you look at the polling data and i went to briefings, as you did as well, we have people who do the polling for the president, for the campaign. it moved the needle one point. and they knew that going back to the 47% argument, they knew for months and months ago that because of the population and demographic changes they had so much going for them that they were never within four or five points of losing this campaign. and the only dip they saw was after denver. because of increasing hispanic and women involvement and other minority involvement, the 47% was not going to rule because they simply had a majority. and it has a profound impact on

so many social issues. >> and, andrea, moj the other top stories of 2012 that you chose, you chose along with mike barnicle, of all people, as a smart point here, as well as andrew ross-sorkin, mike, you chose weather driven events, superstorm sandy, climate change overall. >> what made an impact in the last week of the election as well. >> i think so, joe. i think what happened after sandy or during sandy to the lives of so many people on long island and new jersey and elsewhere, in an odd way is tied into the topic of the 47% remark that mitt romney made. that a campaign -- it's been -- in my memory, i can't recall a campaign so staggeringly incompetent at the level of responding to things. months went by and before he said -- before it was released, the 47% comment was released, i

can't get over the fact that the campaign was so incompetent that they ran for months without any knowledge, it seems, or any attachment, it seems, to the emotional lives of voters. and what happened with bain and the attacks on bain and thus on romney is that people make links, emotional links, bain, they took the factory, and then someone else took my house and other forces are taking my children's futures. >> right. >> and when sandy occurs, that's part of it. you know, my house is gone. part of my life is gone. the emotional lives of voters, they completely missed. >> did they run this thing in a glue factory where it made them light headed? >> you wonder, what did he manage and what did he ever consult upon? >> the funniest thing was when he got attacked on the bain stuff, you had the president's team and the democratic super pac doing these ads that had workers hurt by bain and the romney campaign's response to

that was not to go and find other workers who would attest to bain and its management but talk to ceos who would say mitt romney was a great guy. now there is -- you can't imagine a more ham handed response to that. >> coming up, the most thought provoking must-read opinion pages of the year. and later what would lincoln do? our interview with director steven spielberg on his new film, the 16th president, and what today's politician can learn from president lincoln's leadership of a polarized america. oh! a droid razr m. yeah, you can also get verizon's share everything plan. unlimited talk, text and shareable data, on up to 10 devices. awesome, because we've got, like, ten kids. wow! we have three children. not if you count how much they talk and text. [ text alert ] they're always texting... ha! l-o...l.

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coming up in our next hour, pulitzer prize winning his ttorn doris kearns goodwin joins us to discussion one of the most talked about movies of the year, lincoln, and up next the best of the year's must-read opinion pages. irping ]hon

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welcome back to "morning joe." each morning we discuss some of the best opinion pieceses of the morning. and today i'm going to resurrect

some of the strongest ones from the past year that sparked some of the best discussions on the show. >> oh, great. fantastic. >> i'll start from the past week actually the one that struck you and me the day that it went to print, and that is "new york post," of all papers. the sandy hook horror. and this is the paper's edit editorial taking a stand on guns. >> the conservative "new york post." >> we know that guns don't kill. people do. but we also know that it's extremely difficult to justify the presence of high volume of fire military style weaponry in modern society. yes, those who would disarm america must contend with the constitution. but now those who defend the second amendment have to do so in the context of the sandy hook slaughter. as a matter of conscience, it's going to be a very tough case to make. i thought that was incredibly brave and showed -- >> it's a stunner. it really is a stunner. jonathan capehart, all the more important because obviously

rupert murdoch owns "the new york post" as he owns several other conservative publications and conservative networks. and murdoch got out early -- actually tweeting and getting some statements out early on saying what are we doing here? i mean, being shocked by the carnage. i wonder if that's going to have an impact across his other publications and news stations. >> we'll see if that happens. but to have, as you were pointing out, to have "the new york post" take this strong stance for, joe, for you to take the strong sans you've taken, if we're going to have any movement here, the people, the advocates who want some sort of regulation on firearms are going to need to be joined by folks at the "new york post," by folks like joe scarborough, by conservatives who can guide the conversation in a way that, yes, protects the second amendment right to bear arms but to reck naz the fact as

you said earlier, no right is absolute. and if we're going to get to a place where we can all live in safety, then democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, progressives all have to come together and do it together. >> and guys like joe manchion who not only have not spent their careers vilifying the nra but spent their careers supporting the nra, believing in that second amendment right of people to keep and bear arms but understanding at this point the laws have changed. the facts on the ground have changed. and we'd better all come together and figure out a new way forward. >> and i think people, important people, many of them, have changed. rupert murdoch one of the foremost examples of this. as you indicated, he began tweeting within hours after the sandy hook school shootings. you have "the new york post" editorial mika read in part.

and we have fox news. rupert murdoch has a history and a knowledge of what happens in the prevalence of guns, assault weapons. not guns, assault weapons. in england, i think in 1996, 16 schoolchildren were shot and killed. within two years parliament had passed maybe the world's most stringent gun legislation. >> a total ban. >> that is still existent. murdoch is intimately familiar with this. he could be a powerful and very influential voice in this country. >> passed in australia after a shocking incident there. very tight, restrictive gun control legislation in a culture like america that has always been comfortable with guns, but they passed some tough measures on some assault weapons and what a big difference it's made through the years. >> murdoch is an important

figure for the reasons that we're saying. we talked a lot about the president's need to lead on this. and it's real. at the same time for legislation to get passed, more important are figures in the republican party and conservative democrats in rural pro-gun districts around the country. so you have to look at people like rupert murdoch. does that position carry over on to fox news? it's easier for "the new york post" in liberal manhattan, the five boroughs in general. does fox news start to move? that's an important thing. orrin hatch, said he's not going to run for re-election in 2018, is he going to be a republican who in the past has worked with gun control advocates? will he be a leader on the republican side? those are people who will be watching over the next few months. >> two more must-reads to get to. i'll end on the last one. go to this one that sparked a great conversation and turned out to be true. as usual, quite frankly, with

your analysis of the republican party -- no, it's not fun. crazy never wins by joe scarborough in politico. by that standard conservatism is in short supply and by following the conservative standard my father used it's not so hard to pick out the pretenders in this year's field. guys like my dad do not campbell on candidates like michele bachmann or newt gingrich. guys like my dad who compare to joseph stalin or adolf hitter and guys like my dad don't cozy up to texas governors who brag about seceding from the union or call social security unconstitutional. crazy didn't win, joe, but it also pulled down the nominee. >> the nominee wasn't willing to stand up to crazy. >> early on. >> there were so many times he could have turned, mike barnicle, to michele bachmann, let's say. who said something outrageous.

wait a second. i'm a conservative. are you kidding me? to herman cain -- >> sarah palin. >> and all of these 0 other things that were going on, crazy never wins. but we learned another thing. you'd better stand up to crazy if you want to win in bucks coun county, pennsylvania, win in the i-4 corridor, if you want to win in the suburbs, if you want to win in the places where elections are actually won. >> well, i would ask you, john heilemann, as a key observer of the electoral scene, was not the die cast for mitt romney and perhaps, you know, the rest of the year in terms of republican politics, on the evening when all of the ten candidates on stage were asked to raise their hands if they were in favor of a dollar raise in revenue and $10

in budget cuts. and not one raised his or her hand. that was the definition of crazy. right there. >> a vivid illustration and you think about mitt romney constantly out trying to get further to the right than anybody who challenged him. get to the right in immigration, to the right of rick santorum on contraception. these are not places where you win elections in the middle of the electorate. those are positions if not crazy then pretty far outside the mainstream. >> and, by the way, those are things guys like my dad who never voted for a democratic president in his life would look at the tv set and go, are they kidding me? i'm turning over to see the atlanta braves. >> all right. i just want to end on this one which made had headlines, it was the cover story of "the atlantic." why women still can't have it all by ann marie slaughter. remember this one? >> this is important to me. >> all my life i'd been on the other side of this exchange. i'd been the woman smiling, the

fai faintly superior smile, while another woman told me she had decided to take some time out or pursue a less competitive career track so that she could spend more time with her family. i'd been the woman congratulating herself on her unswerving commitment to the feminist cause chatting smugly with her dwindling number of college or law school friends who had reached and maintained their place on the highest rungs of their profession. i'd been the one telling young women at my lectures that you can have it all and do it all regardless of what field you are in, which means i'd been part, albeit unwittingly, of making millions of women feel that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up the ladder as fast as men and also have a family and an active home life and be thin and beautiful to boot. and it really rei go nighted the debate, this article, over the decision to stay at home or to work full time. and as i learned recently in my own neighborhood after an altercation with a woman, that debate is very much alive. >> she brought out nunchakus.

>> oh, lord, there was a real tension that i thought we had passed. anyhow, that was a very good piece that you all have no interest in. >> i have great interest. >> you do. you do. >> jonathan capehart -- >> they can have it all. >> they really can't. >> you suffer and sacrifice things that guys don't in terms of getting it all. >> i think women who make either decision do, and you're absolutely right but it's both sides of the debate. with that we don't agree on. >> we all care deeply, mika. we do. >> you would not have wanted to have been there at that moment with that lady on my street. you would have run away, shriveled up crying. >> jonathan capehart, we thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> and we will see you soon. >> when we return, some of the most unforgettable moments of mitt romney's campaign for

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>> here now are the top moments that stood out from romney's run, the good, the bad and the ugly. >> i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory. his supporters and campaign also deserve his congratulations. i wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters. this is a time of great challenges for america and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. developing news right now, mitt romney makes it official launching his 2012 presidential bid today in new hampshire. >> rick, i'll tell you what, $10,000? $10,000 bet? >> as they would say in china -- >> i'm speaking, i'm speaking, i'm speaking.

are you just going to keep talking? >> yes, sir. >> are you going to let me finish with what i have to say? >> mitt, i realize the red light doesn't mean anything to you because you're the front-runner but can we drop a little bit of the pieus baloney. >> good evening, the start of the 2012 general election season might someday be traced right back to today. >> after 43 primaries and caucuses, together we are going to win on november 6. >> republicans in congress have found a nominee in president who promises to rubber stamp this agenda if he gets the chance. we cannot give him that chance. >> what's up, gangsta? >> i love it state. the trees are the right heights. i love the cars. >> i love being able to fire people. >> i met a guy yesterday, 7 feet

tall. i figured he had to be if sport but he wasn't in sport. ♪ for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain ♪ >> corporations are people, my friend. >> guess what? i made a lot of money. i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> is this a category five crisis for the romney campaign? >> it really depends on whether they turn the campaign around or not. you've got three presidential debates. >> what do you want me to tell romney? can't do that to himself. >> i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >> the first presidential key bait now just a matter of hours away zip like pbs, i love big bird. i'll call it the economy tax. it's been crushing. i've been in business for 25 years. have i no idea what you're talking about. >> where was obama tonight? he went in there disarmed.

what was romney doing? he was winning. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking that wasn't a question, that was a statement. >> i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. >> you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. >> let me call it an act of terror -- >> can you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. >> hi a binder full of women. >> we also have fewer horses and bayonets. >> here's old moderate mitt. where you been, boy. i missed you all these last few years. >> if you can't change washington from inside the white house, then let's get you the plane ticket back to chicago you've earned. >> don't move. vote. voting is the best revenge. >> i ask people to vote for the

love of country. >> it is election day, america. >> today's a huge day? >> yes, people are choosing on the direction of krthe country. >> just four hours from now the first election polls are going to close. ♪ it's not so bad >> new hampshire is too close to call, virginia too close to call, florida too close to call. >> pennsylvania has been held by president obama. >> so far not exactly the way the night that i think that romney would hope for. >> ohio. president barack obama. remains president of of the united states for a second term. >> the romney family has chosen to give back to america through public service and that is a legacy that we honor and applaud tonight. >> i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction but the nation chose another leader and so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation.

thank you and god bless america. >> coming up from our next hour, from the gettysburg address to the passage of the 13th amendment, we'll go inside the movie "lincoln." >> it's absolutely an amazing movie. we have director steven spielberg here and historian doris kearns goodwin. they're going to join us in a moment. >> stay with us. ♪ really? yep, and their network is super fast. so fast that i reacted to how fast it was but you missed it. i'll show you in slow-mo. woooooooaaah. powww! we'll take it. honey, let's go! what? ok! [ male announcer ] get the season's hottest smartphones, like the samsung galaxy s3. and get t-mobile's unlimited 4g data on their nationwide 4g network. from america's gift headquarters. walmart. time for citi price rewind.

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